ArsDigita: From Start-Up to Bust-Up (or the story of the fall of Icarus) - Part II
The continuation of the earlier begun story of ArsDigita , told by one of its founders, Philip Greenspan .
')
Peter Bloom (General Atlantic), Chip Hazard (Greylock), and Allen
ahin (CEO) had full power over ArsDigita for almost the whole
of the year. During this time they
How did they manage to achieve such a terrible result? To find the answer to this
the question is, is to understand what should be the leader of the company,
software development. First, you need a man who either founded himself and
ran a company, or was a CEO in a company founded by someone (i.e. you don’t need
a person who has been an employee all his life). Secondly, you rather
All you need is someone with experience in software development. Third, you need
someone with knowledge of architectural and subject areas. Fourth, you need
A candidate with strong technical skills and experience. Whatever experience you have
Peter, Chip and Allen, they were definitely full zeros in the four above
areas.
Software development is not easy: everything is changing very quickly and in fact a lot
very smart people. In addition, there are companies like Microsoft, where
people work day and night seven days a week, supported by a mountain of cash in
$ 20 billion and a brand recognized worldwide.
If you are an investor, you can go head on to the Microsft of this world only with
provided that your managers are smart, diligent and hard working and possess
relevant experience and skills. If they are not, then you should
to look at a less competitive and large business. Perhaps you could
offer training services for working with Microsoft or Oracle tools, or
support services for systems written using these tools. Maybe
you should leave the IT business altogether and channel your capital and your experience
staff in a completely different area, for example, renting furniture and
equipment for parties (not so many companies who give tables and
picnic chairs, which have $ 20 billion in the bank, and MIT doctors of science work
day and night in order to deprive competitors of the business).
The attentive reader here will ask the question: “Hey, but haven't you been sitting in
Council? ”Of course. But for most of that year, Chip, Peter and Allen didn’t even want to
hear me: I was annoyed and angry with their criticism of their achievements and abilities;
Self-confidence is the most important character trait for successful
doing things, which means that if I attacked this certainty, then better than me
do not listen to nothing. I don't even know how much time these three spent with
by engineers. Chuck Vest, President of MIT, during a closed speech
for faculty members, once called MIT “a territory without
praise. " And when I turned for help to my professor, in the first week
of postgraduate studies in the specialty of Circuitry and Computers
( Approx. translator: in the original specialty "electrical engineering and
computer science "), then he asked me a couple of questions, said:" You can not solve
This task because you do not know anything and can not even make a due
diligence. "
At the end of December 2000, they stopped collecting the Council at all.
Directors. Instead, they collected so-called. “Investor meetings” in which
met Allen, Ern Blackwelder (director of operations (COO),
who was told that he would soon be fired), Greylock and General
Atlantic. In other words, all the advice except me.
Decisions requiring adoption by the Board of Directors were made not only without
votes of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, but even without notifying
Chairperson (me). For example, after the last meeting of the Council in December
2000, Allen, Ern and VI (a) decided what bonuses to pay the CEO and COO for 2000
year, (b) Jim Jordan was appointed CFO
(see http://www.arsdigita.com/news/ (from the translator: better here because the site
ArsDigita has not been working for a long time) ), (c) decided to get rid of me as Chairman,
about “revealing to the press that I am no more (implying that I resigned, that
did not correspond to reality), (d) hired and appointed Richard Buck
(Richard Buck) to the position of Senior Vice President responsible for Software Development and Design, (e) hired and appointed Dave Menninger to position
Senior Vice President Marketing (again, see
http://www.arsdigita.com/news/ (from translator: use the Internet archive ,
as above, if interested)).
Now you could ask, “Wait, what about two places for guests?”
directors? "Several times during the reign of Greylock, General Atlantic and
Allen, I offered nominations of people who had an idea about the development
BY. No one was accepted. On November 22, 2000, I sent a message to Bill Helman
(Bill Helman) and Bill Kaiser (Bill Kaiser), representatives of Greylock with whom
we worked on financing ArsDigita, trying to arrange a meeting and
discuss a couple of candidates for seats in the Council:
They did not want to intervene in this, arguing that such issues should be resolved with
Greylock employee, who is on the board of directors of a portfolio company,
those. Chip Hazard, the very man whose lack of technical skills
led to the destruction of ArsDigita. However, after a couple of weeks, Kaiser agreed
meet me. We walked around the MIT campus for about half an hour. After
“I explained to him about problems with our products and finances,” Kaiser said
"But don't you think that this is just your opinion and that Allen and Chip see
is the situation completely different? ”
Relativity. It was even pleasant to see that the sophism of Protagoras is alive and well.
after 2500 years. But the statement that “for a man is true all that seems to him
those "ignores the fact that in business the correctness of one or another
statements can be simply calculated: someone loses money, and someone loses them
earns; some companies increase their market share, while others lose.
We left the idea that it would be possible to get any
help.
It seemed that without having the possibility of real management of the company and with a place
Board of Directors of a company that does not convene meetings of this Board, I already
I can not express the opinion of the shareholders of the company. Notice that to
this time, ArsDigita took the opposite direction to what
we wanted to. We aD carefully and gradually. We managed it with a positive
financial result. We risked, but in very small amounts. we
conservatively approached our finances (although from the outside we looked fantastic
successful and living on a grand scale, but the coast house for the team
programmers working 6 days a week for 12 hours a day are not at all
luxury). We purposefully worked as much and thoroughly as Microsoft and
other startups.
The approach of Allen, Greylock and General Atlantic, their strategy could be described as follows:
“Look, this table shows that if we don’t start collecting right now
license fees from our customers, the company will be bankrupt next year. ”
And, by the way, they will pay us for a product that has not yet been written, but
we will sell it to clients with whom we have not worked yet and with whom nothing has ever
did not sell.
Are venture capitalists concerned about such risks? Give reins
CEO newcomer with no experience in the field? Put everything on the product,
who "is about to be ready?" Probably not. General Atlantic manages the fund in
$ 10 billion (see their website http://gapartners.com/ ). Even if ArsDigita is completely
will burn, they will have another $ 9.98 billion of other investments. And what's about
common stock owners? We have never subscribed to such risks and we do not have
other significant investments. I have invested 8 years in my ArsDigita Community System
of life. Gene invested 4 years. We were not at all pleased to see how
retained earnings and $ 38 million of capital are burned just to
three guys in suits and ties gained experience managing a software company.
March 2001 was a black month for shareholders. Many of our most
expensive assets were got out the door. For example, David Rodriguez (David
Rodriguez) is a monster man who has repeatedly proved that he can bring to
End a project of any complexity and transfer it to a happy client. Was he
against implementing abstract URLs in a knowledge collection system (knowledge
management, approx. translator) of the World Bank until I personally
asked him about it by email from australia? Yes. Did he claim
constantly that ACS 4.0 is unstable? Approved. These examples may be the occasion.
for disqualification dvr (David's nickname, approx. translator) from the diplomatic
service. But as shareholders, we did not like that the one whose work was
earned more than $ 1 million in profits, while it cost us, God forbid,
$ 200,000 was thrown out the door. A manager who does not own shares of a company
it may seem logical to dismiss someone who could hook his pride strong
in a word But when I was both the owner and the CEO, I always let my employees release
steam, even in my address, because I understood perfectly well that in the end
this guy raises the value of my stock.
Our co-founder, Aurelius Prokazka (Aurelius Prochazka), was also fired in
purge March 2001th. Have I and Gina, sometimes, cleaned up his code?
Yes. Was Ori somewhat demotivated and unproductive in recent months,
frustrated by the complications of ArsDigita’s financial and market position, did
He is that this is due to the fact that the company is managed by non-professionals? Yes. Was
whether he is hasty in his criticism of highly paid nonprofessionals who
did not reach the intellectual level to which he was accustomed to Caltech
(California Institute of Technology, approx. Translator)? Yes. But what is this
the company will succeed if you dismiss the one who (a) is one of its founders, one
of those who built a business that earned $ 20 million on an investment of $ 10,000; (b) until
this has already built and successfully sold a company of a similar plan; and (c)
responsible for the innovation and interface of several of the most interesting
ACS Modules (nt file storage (abstract file storage,
built as an LBO in an Oracle database, approx. translator))? Ori has protected
Doctorate in circuit design, not the art of seduction. After all, if the cost
companies correlated with how seductive and charismatic her
employees, then Microsoft shareholders would hardly be happy.
So what were the company's shareholders doing in March 2000? Planned joint
research projects between MIT and Orange / France Telecom. Read one day
courses in Thailand and India. Refreshed materials for a course of lectures on software development and
Internet Applications (Software Engineering for Internet Applications) at MIT (he
has just been added to the syllabus number 6.171). Other
in words — engaged in arranging their lives and pursuing personal
technical goals, work for other technology companies. We were hurt
to tears to remember the poor state of ArsDigita, and we
tried not to think about it.
Anger, goddess, sing Achilles, Peleev’s son,
Terrible, which Aheyanam thousands of disasters have done:
Many souls mighty glorious heroes cast down
In gloomy Hades and spread them themselves to the greed of carnivores
The birds of the neighborhood and the dogs (Zeus's will was done),
From that day, like, having erected a dispute, they were kindled with hostility
The shepherd of the peoples Atrid and the hero Achilles noble.
Who from the gods of the immortal feat of theirs to a hostile dispute?
- Homer, Iliad , Song of the First (translated from ancient Greek N. Gnedich)
Peter Bloom, General Atlantic employee, representing their interests in our
The Council in March 2000 was not in tears. He was angry, just as angry as
over the past few months. Although Agamemnon did not take his girlfriend
Breeze to become a priestess in the temple of Christ, Bloom's anger was no less than the anger of his sons.
Pelea My habit is to remind him that he would do better if
chose more worthy opponents (for example, Microsoft or Oracle, and not
37-year-old woman living in a 2-room apartment in Cambridge) did not help
cool it off. But what was probably the last straw in his cup, this
perhaps that is how I described the work of venture capitalists to one of the teachers in
MIT. (I said that "it reminds me of a nursery who managed to steal
Boeing 747 and now they click all the switches, trying to force it
take to the air. ”)
Peter Bloom sent me a message of the following content on March 28, 2001:
“Because you don’t like it that way
company, you can resign yourself before the next meeting
Council. This is, of course, your personal decision, but it is the decision that
reduce the likelihood and depth of public humiliation and significant damage to your
professional reputation, what will be your dismissal from the post of Chairman
Board of Directors. ... Those actions that you have taken recently,
as well as the messages that you sent to different people, put you in a very
unsightly and ugly situation, I recommended that you contact someone
for legal assistance. I sincerely hope that the lawyer you trust,
will be able to explain to you all the seriousness of the consequences of your recent
speeches and accusations before you irrevocably destroy your reputation and
your financial future. "
Shortly after receiving this message, I went to the ArsDigita office to pick up
Alex have Eve. But my pass did not open the door anymore.
When a company with $ 10 billion of assets threatens you with “irrevocable destruction
your financial future, ”which means you need a lawyer. So
way, thanks to the instructions of Peter, I directed my feet to Sam Mon-Mahlo
(Sam Mawn-Mahlau) and Paul Mahoney of Edwards and Angels. It is they
prepared a “shareholder agreement” that changed the company’s charter
As long as ArsDigita did not bargain on the exchange, its CEO and
the president will be elected by direct vote of the shareholders. And the next item
the same agreement was followed by the election of Philip Greenspan as CEO. One more
The point of the same agreement was the election of Tracey Adams and Eve.
Andersson (Eve Andersson), two of the company's vice-presidents, on the board
Directors. And since the shareholders agreement required three of
Representatives of the company in the Council should be “top management”, we also
raised them to the ranks of the Executive Vice Presidents, so, for every fireman
happening.
The result of this “shareholder consent” was the reduction of the role of the VI precisely before
the level to which they were entitled, i.e. 2 seats in the Council and veto power
significant operations.
Shareholders voted on the same day CNET published a note on
ArsDigita Terminated Open Source Software Support Policy
and all future versions will be distributed according to the traditional licensing scheme,
and also reported that "the former Chairman of the Board of Directors," Philip
Greenspan left the company. The next morning, April 6th, the courier arrived at
street address Prospect 80 (headquarters of ArsDigita) and delivered the package to Allen,
who informed him that he was demoted from the position of “President and CEO” to
position of "president". I called Allen and reassured him that I did not intend
to make any immediate reshuffle that i'm ready
completely forget about everything that happened over the past year and continue working with
on the terms of our initial agreement (I am developing,
education propaganda; Allen does the rest). I said that
next few weeks I want to devote a detailed analysis of what
condition is our product, our customers, the company. In response, Allen said
I was exactly what I wanted to hear and I calmed down, having decided that I could work
with him.
(Ending follows)
April 2000 to March 2001
')
Peter Bloom (General Atlantic), Chip Hazard (Greylock), and Allen
ahin (CEO) had full power over ArsDigita for almost the whole
of the year. During this time they
- spent $ 20 million to reach the same level of profitability that
was the company while the CEO was me; - Microsoft declined to become the first company to offer
enterprise platform on .NET (Microsoft employee who participated in
negotiating with Allen told me that “he reminds me of many CEOs from
The companies we worked with are now completely bankrupt. ”); - wrote off the previous, fully working version of the system (ACS 3.4) before
The work on the new version (ACS 4.x) has been completed (any professional with
experience in a software development company will say that this is the most successful way
kill the company: Informix died precisely because no one could understand
whether to use the old, stable version 7 or the new "fancy"
version 9, and instead, switched to Oracle); - greatly inflated costs (I employed 80 people with basic
wages less than $ 100,000, which brought the company $ 20 million in
year. The ArsDigita running Greylock, General Atlantic and Allen State
rose to 200 with a lot of managerial positions with a salary in
$ 200,000 or more, programmers with a base salary of $ 125,000, etc. To this
also contributed to the new work culture from 9 to 17, only on weekdays. Neither
Allen, neither Greylock, nor General Atlantic considered it necessary to appear in
office at the weekend, respectively, and the staff thought it was over.); - completely lost ground as a business and innovation leader in the market.
How did they manage to achieve such a terrible result? To find the answer to this
the question is, is to understand what should be the leader of the company,
software development. First, you need a man who either founded himself and
ran a company, or was a CEO in a company founded by someone (i.e. you don’t need
a person who has been an employee all his life). Secondly, you rather
All you need is someone with experience in software development. Third, you need
someone with knowledge of architectural and subject areas. Fourth, you need
A candidate with strong technical skills and experience. Whatever experience you have
Peter, Chip and Allen, they were definitely full zeros in the four above
areas.
Software development is not easy: everything is changing very quickly and in fact a lot
very smart people. In addition, there are companies like Microsoft, where
people work day and night seven days a week, supported by a mountain of cash in
$ 20 billion and a brand recognized worldwide.
If you are an investor, you can go head on to the Microsft of this world only with
provided that your managers are smart, diligent and hard working and possess
relevant experience and skills. If they are not, then you should
to look at a less competitive and large business. Perhaps you could
offer training services for working with Microsoft or Oracle tools, or
support services for systems written using these tools. Maybe
you should leave the IT business altogether and channel your capital and your experience
staff in a completely different area, for example, renting furniture and
equipment for parties (not so many companies who give tables and
picnic chairs, which have $ 20 billion in the bank, and MIT doctors of science work
day and night in order to deprive competitors of the business).
The attentive reader here will ask the question: “Hey, but haven't you been sitting in
Council? ”Of course. But for most of that year, Chip, Peter and Allen didn’t even want to
hear me: I was annoyed and angry with their criticism of their achievements and abilities;
Self-confidence is the most important character trait for successful
doing things, which means that if I attacked this certainty, then better than me
do not listen to nothing. I don't even know how much time these three spent with
by engineers. Chuck Vest, President of MIT, during a closed speech
for faculty members, once called MIT “a territory without
praise. " And when I turned for help to my professor, in the first week
of postgraduate studies in the specialty of Circuitry and Computers
( Approx. translator: in the original specialty "electrical engineering and
computer science "), then he asked me a couple of questions, said:" You can not solve
This task because you do not know anything and can not even make a due
diligence. "
Board seat that never meets
At the end of December 2000, they stopped collecting the Council at all.
Directors. Instead, they collected so-called. “Investor meetings” in which
met Allen, Ern Blackwelder (director of operations (COO),
who was told that he would soon be fired), Greylock and General
Atlantic. In other words, all the advice except me.
Decisions requiring adoption by the Board of Directors were made not only without
votes of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, but even without notifying
Chairperson (me). For example, after the last meeting of the Council in December
2000, Allen, Ern and VI (a) decided what bonuses to pay the CEO and COO for 2000
year, (b) Jim Jordan was appointed CFO
(see http://www.arsdigita.com/news/ (from the translator: better here because the site
ArsDigita has not been working for a long time) ), (c) decided to get rid of me as Chairman,
about “revealing to the press that I am no more (implying that I resigned, that
did not correspond to reality), (d) hired and appointed Richard Buck
(Richard Buck) to the position of Senior Vice President responsible for Software Development and Design, (e) hired and appointed Dave Menninger to position
Senior Vice President Marketing (again, see
http://www.arsdigita.com/news/ (from translator: use the Internet archive ,
as above, if interested)).
And what about the two places for guest directors?
Now you could ask, “Wait, what about two places for guests?”
directors? "Several times during the reign of Greylock, General Atlantic and
Allen, I offered nominations of people who had an idea about the development
BY. No one was accepted. On November 22, 2000, I sent a message to Bill Helman
(Bill Helman) and Bill Kaiser (Bill Kaiser), representatives of Greylock with whom
we worked on financing ArsDigita, trying to arrange a meeting and
discuss a couple of candidates for seats in the Council:
... However, as a company investor, I am very concerned about the fact that in
Board of Directors and the top management of ArsDigita, there is no
one person with good engineering knowledge. I don't know what your experience is,
but mine tells me that the technology company will be difficult to achieve
success without technical experts in top positions. ...
They did not want to intervene in this, arguing that such issues should be resolved with
Greylock employee, who is on the board of directors of a portfolio company,
those. Chip Hazard, the very man whose lack of technical skills
led to the destruction of ArsDigita. However, after a couple of weeks, Kaiser agreed
meet me. We walked around the MIT campus for about half an hour. After
“I explained to him about problems with our products and finances,” Kaiser said
"But don't you think that this is just your opinion and that Allen and Chip see
is the situation completely different? ”
Relativity. It was even pleasant to see that the sophism of Protagoras is alive and well.
after 2500 years. But the statement that “for a man is true all that seems to him
those "ignores the fact that in business the correctness of one or another
statements can be simply calculated: someone loses money, and someone loses them
earns; some companies increase their market share, while others lose.
We left the idea that it would be possible to get any
help.
It seemed that without having the possibility of real management of the company and with a place
Board of Directors of a company that does not convene meetings of this Board, I already
I can not express the opinion of the shareholders of the company. Notice that to
this time, ArsDigita took the opposite direction to what
we wanted to. We aD carefully and gradually. We managed it with a positive
financial result. We risked, but in very small amounts. we
conservatively approached our finances (although from the outside we looked fantastic
successful and living on a grand scale, but the coast house for the team
programmers working 6 days a week for 12 hours a day are not at all
luxury). We purposefully worked as much and thoroughly as Microsoft and
other startups.
The approach of Allen, Greylock and General Atlantic, their strategy could be described as follows:
“Look, this table shows that if we don’t start collecting right now
license fees from our customers, the company will be bankrupt next year. ”
And, by the way, they will pay us for a product that has not yet been written, but
we will sell it to clients with whom we have not worked yet and with whom nothing has ever
did not sell.
Are venture capitalists concerned about such risks? Give reins
CEO newcomer with no experience in the field? Put everything on the product,
who "is about to be ready?" Probably not. General Atlantic manages the fund in
$ 10 billion (see their website http://gapartners.com/ ). Even if ArsDigita is completely
will burn, they will have another $ 9.98 billion of other investments. And what's about
common stock owners? We have never subscribed to such risks and we do not have
other significant investments. I have invested 8 years in my ArsDigita Community System
of life. Gene invested 4 years. We were not at all pleased to see how
retained earnings and $ 38 million of capital are burned just to
three guys in suits and ties gained experience managing a software company.
March 2001: The Last Kick
March 2001 was a black month for shareholders. Many of our most
expensive assets were got out the door. For example, David Rodriguez (David
Rodriguez) is a monster man who has repeatedly proved that he can bring to
End a project of any complexity and transfer it to a happy client. Was he
against implementing abstract URLs in a knowledge collection system (knowledge
management, approx. translator) of the World Bank until I personally
asked him about it by email from australia? Yes. Did he claim
constantly that ACS 4.0 is unstable? Approved. These examples may be the occasion.
for disqualification dvr (David's nickname, approx. translator) from the diplomatic
service. But as shareholders, we did not like that the one whose work was
earned more than $ 1 million in profits, while it cost us, God forbid,
$ 200,000 was thrown out the door. A manager who does not own shares of a company
it may seem logical to dismiss someone who could hook his pride strong
in a word But when I was both the owner and the CEO, I always let my employees release
steam, even in my address, because I understood perfectly well that in the end
this guy raises the value of my stock.
Our co-founder, Aurelius Prokazka (Aurelius Prochazka), was also fired in
purge March 2001th. Have I and Gina, sometimes, cleaned up his code?
Yes. Was Ori somewhat demotivated and unproductive in recent months,
frustrated by the complications of ArsDigita’s financial and market position, did
He is that this is due to the fact that the company is managed by non-professionals? Yes. Was
whether he is hasty in his criticism of highly paid nonprofessionals who
did not reach the intellectual level to which he was accustomed to Caltech
(California Institute of Technology, approx. Translator)? Yes. But what is this
the company will succeed if you dismiss the one who (a) is one of its founders, one
of those who built a business that earned $ 20 million on an investment of $ 10,000; (b) until
this has already built and successfully sold a company of a similar plan; and (c)
responsible for the innovation and interface of several of the most interesting
ACS Modules (nt file storage (abstract file storage,
built as an LBO in an Oracle database, approx. translator))? Ori has protected
Doctorate in circuit design, not the art of seduction. After all, if the cost
companies correlated with how seductive and charismatic her
employees, then Microsoft shareholders would hardly be happy.
So what were the company's shareholders doing in March 2000? Planned joint
research projects between MIT and Orange / France Telecom. Read one day
courses in Thailand and India. Refreshed materials for a course of lectures on software development and
Internet Applications (Software Engineering for Internet Applications) at MIT (he
has just been added to the syllabus number 6.171). Other
in words — engaged in arranging their lives and pursuing personal
technical goals, work for other technology companies. We were hurt
to tears to remember the poor state of ArsDigita, and we
tried not to think about it.
Anger, goddess, sing Achilles, Peleev’s son,
Terrible, which Aheyanam thousands of disasters have done:
Many souls mighty glorious heroes cast down
In gloomy Hades and spread them themselves to the greed of carnivores
The birds of the neighborhood and the dogs (Zeus's will was done),
From that day, like, having erected a dispute, they were kindled with hostility
The shepherd of the peoples Atrid and the hero Achilles noble.
Who from the gods of the immortal feat of theirs to a hostile dispute?
- Homer, Iliad , Song of the First (translated from ancient Greek N. Gnedich)
Peter Bloom, General Atlantic employee, representing their interests in our
The Council in March 2000 was not in tears. He was angry, just as angry as
over the past few months. Although Agamemnon did not take his girlfriend
Breeze to become a priestess in the temple of Christ, Bloom's anger was no less than the anger of his sons.
Pelea My habit is to remind him that he would do better if
chose more worthy opponents (for example, Microsoft or Oracle, and not
37-year-old woman living in a 2-room apartment in Cambridge) did not help
cool it off. But what was probably the last straw in his cup, this
perhaps that is how I described the work of venture capitalists to one of the teachers in
MIT. (I said that "it reminds me of a nursery who managed to steal
Boeing 747 and now they click all the switches, trying to force it
take to the air. ”)
Peter Bloom sent me a message of the following content on March 28, 2001:
“Because you don’t like it that way
company, you can resign yourself before the next meeting
Council. This is, of course, your personal decision, but it is the decision that
reduce the likelihood and depth of public humiliation and significant damage to your
professional reputation, what will be your dismissal from the post of Chairman
Board of Directors. ... Those actions that you have taken recently,
as well as the messages that you sent to different people, put you in a very
unsightly and ugly situation, I recommended that you contact someone
for legal assistance. I sincerely hope that the lawyer you trust,
will be able to explain to you all the seriousness of the consequences of your recent
speeches and accusations before you irrevocably destroy your reputation and
your financial future. "
Shortly after receiving this message, I went to the ArsDigita office to pick up
Alex have Eve. But my pass did not open the door anymore.
When a company with $ 10 billion of assets threatens you with “irrevocable destruction
your financial future, ”which means you need a lawyer. So
way, thanks to the instructions of Peter, I directed my feet to Sam Mon-Mahlo
(Sam Mawn-Mahlau) and Paul Mahoney of Edwards and Angels. It is they
prepared a “shareholder agreement” that changed the company’s charter
As long as ArsDigita did not bargain on the exchange, its CEO and
the president will be elected by direct vote of the shareholders. And the next item
the same agreement was followed by the election of Philip Greenspan as CEO. One more
The point of the same agreement was the election of Tracey Adams and Eve.
Andersson (Eve Andersson), two of the company's vice-presidents, on the board
Directors. And since the shareholders agreement required three of
Representatives of the company in the Council should be “top management”, we also
raised them to the ranks of the Executive Vice Presidents, so, for every fireman
happening.
The result of this “shareholder consent” was the reduction of the role of the VI precisely before
the level to which they were entitled, i.e. 2 seats in the Council and veto power
significant operations.
Shareholders voted on the same day CNET published a note on
ArsDigita Terminated Open Source Software Support Policy
and all future versions will be distributed according to the traditional licensing scheme,
and also reported that "the former Chairman of the Board of Directors," Philip
Greenspan left the company. The next morning, April 6th, the courier arrived at
street address Prospect 80 (headquarters of ArsDigita) and delivered the package to Allen,
who informed him that he was demoted from the position of “President and CEO” to
position of "president". I called Allen and reassured him that I did not intend
to make any immediate reshuffle that i'm ready
completely forget about everything that happened over the past year and continue working with
on the terms of our initial agreement (I am developing,
education propaganda; Allen does the rest). I said that
next few weeks I want to devote a detailed analysis of what
condition is our product, our customers, the company. In response, Allen said
I was exactly what I wanted to hear and I calmed down, having decided that I could work
with him.
(Ending follows)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/31544/
All Articles